I'm having trouble getting over how great
is, and not just because of how sleep-deprived I was this morning when I finished it (or when I read the Slate article whining about YA lit--and incidentally, has it occured to anyone else that I left behind my experimental, nonnarrative film expectations for the one fucking thing on the planet more people have less of a concept of? And these are intelligent, well-read people. Sorry. I'm just feeling Friday cranky about having to explain, again and again, exactly what YA lit is. Can I just punch the Slate hosebag and be done with it?), or that neither Montmorency: Thief, Something, Blah or The Book of Dead Days are as cool and creepy as I was led to believe. That'll learn me to believe the hype and/or bookjackets.Eh, what was I saying? Headache. Sleepy. Furry. Tomorrow morning's present unwrapped and to-be-exposed body parts unshaven. Jesus, ALA's in a week. In less than 2 weeks, I belong to a different age demographic. 26-death box, here I come!
Oh yeah! I remember now. Aw, and you all thought I had absolutely no point to make.
Remember when I wrote this? If it helps, it was pink last time. I opened my email the other day to find a new comment, and could that "PJ" perhaps stand for what I think it does?
So, here's my beef with the end of Things Change. Although I should preface this by saying that I'm ambivalent about my beef, because on the one hand, learn-a-lesson-lit annoys me and far be it from me to say that YA lit should first be socially responsible. But then I read Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn, and felt better about things. I guess I just feel like Jones' book ends too up in the air. If you know anything about the cycles that domestic abuse takes, Girl's optimism is kind of scary. It also bothered me that she never thought about her relationship with her parents, and how a girl like that could very well keep choosing abusive asses as boyfriends to spite them. But hey, I could be totally talking out of my ass right now.
Also, I didn't like either main character from the get go. Perfectionist meets guy who "knows" he's funny? Sign me up for fucked-up girl who falls in with fairy junkies instead. Or, you know, a nap.
5 comments:
holy linking, batgirl!
t.
Interesting...well, its your book once it leaves my hand, but I thought the ending was very clear: Paul is going onto another abusive relationship for that is the cycle of abuse; Johanna, having liberated herself - without adult help - from the relationship with Paul and having started to redefine her relationsip with her parents probably will not find herself in another. It wasn't meant to by a cyncial or open ending, but rather a "holy shit" ending of knowing that for Paul -and his next girlfriend and the one after that - this is going to continue. But then again, maybe I'm the one talking out of my ass (and you're right, Breathing Underwater is not only a more optimistic book, it is also a much much better one than mine. patrick@connectingya.com
I've got 4 days until I switch ages and I have to spend it on a plane to a conference in Texas. And I found my first gray hair yesterday.
Sometimes I want to punch the people at Slate too. Care to make a contest out of it?
Hmmm, what kind of contest? Will there be punch and pie?
maybe you can win a
FREE HAT! (said in a slightly southern accent)
t. (come on, who else would have an entire conversation with south park quotes?)
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